my son

El Fuego, my son and our first born, is turning eight in two very short weeks.

I am looking forward to what the eighth year of his life presents to us. We've never lived through YEAR 8 before. He has a year of new experiences as an eight year old boy in front of him, as well as new challenges too I'm sure.

El Fuego is a cool kid and extremely precocious. So precocious in fact that many people just don't understand him. They believe him to be a "trouble maker" of sorts and grow impatient with his constant, well, constant. He has a way of forcing people out of their comfort zones and think out of the box when dealing with him. He is NOT a typical boy. He is intense, inquisitive, overly sensitive, moody and gregarious with a wicked sense of humor. This misunderstanding of him others reflect really, really bothers me. It breaks my heart! I know he is special and unique just as much as I understand how exhausting and frustrating his behavior can be. I know because I live with him!!! But, when I see his teachers, other parents and even his peers (and sometimes friends) misunderstanding him, I am saddened. Mad even. Heartsick completely.

I ached for him to fit in and be happy and find joy as every young boy should. I want him to still be himself (all unique and smart as he is) but not be segregated or left out because of those very qualities. A concern every parent longs for I'm sure. My need to help him navigate this portion of his life sent me to seek out a counselor. I contacted a local Clinical Psychotherapist and began a little something she called "Parent Training". It's helped. It's healed. I have a brand new perspective of my son.

However, there are days, like today, when he comes to me and presents me with his new blog that I wonder to myself "why can't he just play with Lego's and train sets!!!!" At first I was slightly upset. I told his dad out of frustration. We had to go in and fix a lot of the personal information and I'm still waiting for an email on a password he has long forgotten for an account he set up to follow other blogs. You see, he set up this blog using a fake email because he works around the system when he is presented with obstacles. Which is El Fuego in a nutshell. He is constantly thinking, doing and working the system. He is creative in not so typical ways. In fact he, at this very moment, is making videos of himself and downloading them onto a spare laptop. He longs for Microsoft Movie Maker!